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IPoIitical %spth m)) ^wsptts in fcope. 



LECTURE 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



YOUNG MEFS ASSOCIATION 



CITY OF ALBANY, 



January 31, 1854. ^ , Q „• 



C \\ X ^ 



BJ DANIEL D; BAENAED, LL. D. 

r 



ALBANY : 

WEED, PARSONS AND COMPANY. 
1854. 



o 



ft ' 



-rt,^ 



Rooms op the TouNa Men's Association, ) 
Albany, February \st, 1S54. ( 

At a meeting of the Executive Committee, held this day, it was unanimously 
Resolved, That the thanks of the Association be presented to the Hon. Daniel D. Baenaed 
for his interesting and instructive Lecture on " Political Aspects and Prospects in Eueope," 
delivered before the Association last evening, and that he be requested to furnish a copy thereof 
for publication. 

( A copy from the minutes. ) 

JACOB C. CUTLER, Recording Se&y. 



Albany, February \, 1854. 
Hon. DANIEL D. BARNARD, 
Deab Sie: 

We take pleasure in communicating to you the foregoing copy of a Resolution, unanimously 
passed by the Executive Committee of the Young Men's Association this day. We trust that you 
will be willing to favor us by a compliance with the request therein contained, that we may give 
a more enduring form and a wider circulation to the invaluable truths contained In the Lecture. 
We have the honor to be, 

Your obedient servants, 
CLINTON CASSIDY, GILBERT L. WILSON, 
RALPH P. LATHBOP, GEORGE B. HOYT, 
WM. A. JACKSON, J. C. CUTLER, 

H. H. CRANE, JOSEPH WARREN, 

J. N. PARKER, JOHN C. FELTMAN, 

PETER SMITH, Jr., W.' T. BURGESS, 

JNO. t. Mcknight, jno. f. steele, 

H. T. BUELL, JAMES REID, 

WM. H. TAYLOR, DAVID MURRAY, 

REUBEN WILSON, CHARLES D. HARMAN, 

K. V. DE WITT, Je. 



Albany, February 15, 1854. 
Gentlemen : 

I have felt much flattered by the very kind matter and manner of your letter of the first instant, 
accompanying a Resolution of the Executive Committee of your Association, asking for a copy 
of my Lecture, lately delivered before that body, for publication. 

I regret that circumstances have prevented an earlier reply. I have concluded to place my 
manuscript at your disposal, which I will do as soon as I can find time to revise it, with a view 
to the correction of any errors in language that may have escaped me in the haste of composition. 

With great respect and esteem, 
I am, gentlemen, 

Your obedient serv't, 
Messrs. Gilbert L. Wilson, D. D. BARNARD. 

Clinton Cassedy and others. 



LECTURE. 



I THINK we are never, in this country, without an ex- 
pectation of a Revohition to "break out somewhere in the 
European woi'lcl. Many look eagerly for tliis sort of 
news, and feel no little disappointment whenever an ar- 
rival is announced and no blessed intelligence of this 
nature comes with it. Others expect these events with 
more patience, and with a mingled feeling of dread and 
hope. It is an opinion, very commonly entertained, 
that it is only through this kind of tribulation that any 
people, not already free, can enter into the full beati- 
tudes of liberty. And those who hold this sentiment 
are enabled to fortify themselves by many examples, to 
show that the emancipation of nations must be achieved 
by violence and war. It was thus that our own inde- 
pendence was estabhshed. It was thus that the inde- 
pendence of the South American Republics was estab- 
lished. It was thus that Holland threw off her subju- 
gation to Spain. But, natural as may be this sympathy 
of the American people with revolution abroad, actual 
or expected, still it becomes a question how far it is 
fit and proper, how far it is right or politic in us to 
give expression to it, in reference, at least, to those 
countries with which we maintain, and officially pro- 
claim our desire to maintain, relations of peace, com- 



6 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

merce and friendsliip. Nations are equals; and some- 
thing is due to courtesy between them, as there is be- 
tween gentlemen ; and the people and the government 
ought to be in accord on a matter of so much impor- 
tance. Whatever attitude is proper to be assumed by 
the people of the United States towards a foreign people 
and government, the same attitude would seem to be 
quite proper to be assumed by the President of the 
United States, who, as their rej)resentative, is the Con- 
stitutional organ of foreign communication and inter- 
course. 

Suppose, then, that an American Minister abroad, who, 
in that capacity, represents the sovereignty of the coun- 
try, under the appointment and instructions of the Presi- 
dent, and who, it is often insisted, is bound to represent 
his country in all its distinctive and characteristic senti- 
ments and feelings, should apj^roach the sovereign to 
whom he may be accredited, on the occasion of present- 
ing his letters of credence, and say : ' Sire, It gives me 
particular pleasure to convey to your Majesty the assu- 
rance of the President of the United States, as I am in- 
structed to do, of his hearty desire to maintain and per- 
petuate relations of perfect amity with your Majesty and 
your Majesty's government and country. It is due. Sire, 
at the same time, to candor, to apprise your Majesty that 
the United States are looking anxiously, I ought to say 
impatiently, for a rebelhon and revolution in your Majes- 
ty's dominions, by which your Majesty and your royal 
house shall be extirpated, or driven into perpetual exile, 
and your Majesty's oppressed subjects become emancipa- 
ted and fi'ee.' This, to say the least of it, would be a 
novel proceeding in Dij)lomatic intercourse; and per- 
haps, after all, the most ardent patriot amongst us would 



PROSPECTS IN EUROPE. 7 

not care, supposing tliis to be tbe true feeling of the 
country, to bave tbe country quite so faitbfully repre- 
sented abroad. 

It is natural and ine\dtable tbat tbe citizens of a Re- 
public, as bappy in its Constitution and prosperous in its 
affairs as ours is, and wbo, not from mere babit or pre- 
judice, but from well-reasoned and enligbtened convic- 
tion, are devotedly attacbed to tbis form of government, 
sbould be disj)osed to sympatbise strongly witb tbose 
wbo call tbemselves repuljbcans, wberever tbey arise 
and manifest tbemselves in any quarter of tbe world. 
But tbere is some danger tbat tbis sympatby may mis- 
lead our judgments, may outrun knowledge and discre- 
tion, may waste itself on unwortby objects and on un- 
wortby demonstrations, may do less tban justice, or posi- 
tive injustice, to existing governments and institutions, 
and, in its excess and universality, may lead our govern- 
ment and country to assume positions, in tbe face of tbe 
world, wbicb it would be impossible to maintain, and 
from wbicb it would be equally impossible to retreat 
witb credit or bonor. 

It bas seemed to me tbat it migbt not be altogetber 
unprofitable if I sbould embrace tbis occasion to present 
to your consideration a sketcb of tbose revolutionary 
attempts and movements in Europe, in modern and re- 
cent times, witb tbeir successes and tbeir failures, wbicb, 
in tbeir origin, or in tbe turn given to tbem by tbe party 
calling itself democratic or republican, bave bad for 
tbeir object tbe overtbrow of Monarcby, and tbe plant- 
ing of tbe Repubbcan system in its place ; and to offer 
also, in connection and continuation, a sketcb of tbe re- 
markable process wbicb bas long been going on in Eu- 
rope, wbetber under tbe lead of tbe existing sovereigns 



POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 



themselves, or against their will, in converting absolute 
governments into governments of limited powers, with 
written Constitutions and a representative parliamentary 
system, and with provisions, more or less extensive and 
complete, for the guarantee of popular rights and liber- 
ties, and for securing to the people a place and a share 
in the business of government. 

As the substance of what I propose to offer will be 
historical, following, strictly and literally, the course and 
current of events, I trust it will be borne in mind that 
it is no particular fault of mine if it shall seem to follow 
from the obstinate truths of the record presented, that 
Europe, whether generally or in particular quarters, is 
not quite so far advanced in the line of full fraternity 
with us as a Republic as many amongst us have hoped 
and believed. We shall find, after all, for our consola- 
tion, that Europe has been making progress, and very 
remarkable progress too, in liberal ideas, and in govern- 
mental forms fitted to advance, and in some good degree 
to secure personal freedom. And we shall find, also, that 
for very much of all this, beyond all question, she is in- 
debted to us, and to our institutions and example. 

According to the avowed objects and designs of the 
Democratic and Revolutionary party in Europe — that 
party which has lately had its representatives from abroad 
in this country — that party which looks to the United 
States for sympathy, not to say for material aid — it does 
not consider that anything has really been gained, or any- 
thing really accomplished, if its success, in any demon- 
stration, has not gone the full length of overturning an 
existing government. Monarchical in its form, and estab- 
lishing a Republic on its ruins. This party, of course, 
accepts of no sovereignty but that of the people ; and it 



PEOSPECTS IN EUROPE, 9 

goes furtlier, and accepts of no political reform under 
any other sovereignty. It professes its design and reso- 
lution to go to the root of the matter. It will have the 
Re]3ubhc and nothing else ; and I su2:)pose there can be 
no doubt that a decided preponderance of voices, both 
among the leaders and in the ranks, is for wliat is called 
the Democratic and Social Republic. This party, as a 
political Propaganda, aiming to plant the authority and 
rule of Democracy everywhere, to the exclusion of all 
other government, by means of revolution, may Ije re- 
garded as going back in its history rather more than 
sixty years ; it goes l)ack to that stormy period in 
France, when, born with more than the strength of the 
infant Hercules, its spirit gained a ready ascendancy in 
those councils and assemblies called in that unhappy 
country, at that period, to propose remedies for the re- 
dress of those monstrous and unendurable abuses in 
which the government of the time had involved itself; 
when, through its domination, the National Assembly of 
France proclaimed the abolition of Royalty, the birth 
of the Republic one and indivisible, and the readiness 
of the French people " to assist all nations desirous of 
recovering their lil:)erty." 

Within a very brief period from the rise of this party, 
taking that date at 1792, besides the Republic of France, 
with greatly extended boundaries and power, not less 
than six or seven other republics were proclaimed, as 
trophies of its victorious cause, and witnesses of the 
wisdom of its doctrines and principles. Venice became 
a Democracy. A Republic was proclaimed at Rome. 
Genoa was converted into the Ligurian Republic. In 
Naples, the Parthenopian Republic was founded. Two 
other Republics, the Transpadane and the Cispadane, 



10 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

were establislied in Lombardy and upper Italy, after- 
wards united — first, under tlie name of the Cisalpine, 
and, next, under that of the Italian Republic, with no 
less a personage than Napoleon Bonaparte for its Presi- 
dent; and, finally, the Kingdom of Holland was con- 
verted into the Batavian Republic. 

Here, then, was great apparent success. Six or seven 
years had sufficed to found in Europe as many Repub- 
lics, all built on the subversion and the ruins of the old 
order of things. Battle after battle was fought, and 
victory after victory perched on the banner of the 
Republican forces, and one proud old monarchy after 
another was compelled to acknowledge and recognise 
these new governments which had arisen to astonish and 
confound the vision and sense of mankind. But, unhap- 
pily for the cause and encouragement of the party 
of Revolution, much less than the same number of 
years that had sufficed for the creation of these new 
governments, was employed in sweeping them away. In 
a short dozen years from the solemn abolition of Royalty 
m France, not a vestige or sign of a Republic, which 
had been created by Revolution, remained in Europe. 
All had been dissolved and had disappeared, as if they 
had been, not substantial fabrics of political government, 
but something vapory and unreal — mere exhalations 
from the bosom of the disturbed and reeking earth, 
though assuming, fantastically, the outline and shape of 
great and gorgeous structures, with solid foundations, 
under the shelter of which nations might gather to taste 
the felicity of freedom, security and peace. 

And from the period when this entire grouj) of 
revolutionary creations had disappeared, on through a 
term of forty-four years, no serious attempt — at least. 



PEOSPECTS IN EUROPE. 11 

no successful attempt — was made to re-create Repub- 
lics in continental Europe. And all this time tlie 
Democratic and Revolutionary party was not extinct ; 
it existed ; it was, all the while, an organized, and often 
an active, Propaganda. It was doing what it could. It 
was cherishing its peculiar doctrines. It was nourishing 
its mortal hate against Royalty. It was storing up its 
wrath for the first occasion which might offer for action 
and vengeance. It had its adherents, its j)artizans and 
agents in every country. Indeed, the broad doctrine of 
Republicanism against Royalty has, at all times, its re- 
presentatives and advocates everywhere in Europe, and 
in every rank and condition of life. Among men of 
genius and philanthropy, especially those of poetic tem- 
perament ; among philosophers ; among learned profes- 
sors and savans ; among Avriters and literary men ; in 
the ranks of the army, and very high up in those ranks ; 
in the ranks of the nobles, and even among those of 
princely birth, Republicans are found ; those who hold 
to the theory of Rej^ublican doctrine, and honestly main- 
tain and defend their faith in that doctrine, as often and 
as openly as they can or dare. These, it is true, do not 
usually swell the ranks of the active revolutionary 
Propaganda. But their well known sentiments, though 
utterly discarding all sympathy with the extreme 
opinions, and the socialistic, infidel and bloody creeds, 
so prevalent in that party, give encouragement to it, and 
lend to it a sort of moral aid and comfort. And after 
all, nothing was done, and scarcely anything was at- 
tempted, for forty-four years after the first French 
Republic, and those that revolved as satelhtes around it, 
had disappeared. 



12 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

At length came the insurrection in Paris of February, 
1848, and once more France was procLaimecl a Republic. 
Immediately, new hopes animated the revolutionary 
Propaganda ; immediately, it sprang into new activity. 
This time, however, it was not backed by the armies of 
the Grand Nation, in the various theatres of its opera- 
tions. In each country it was left mainly to help itself. 
It did what it was able to do. In the progress of 
events, Venice proclaimed itself a Republic, and gal- 
lantly did she fight to maintain her declaration. Once 
more a Roman Republic was proclaimed. A Repub- 
lic was set up at Florence. And in Hungary a war, 
begun for reform or for independence, Avas converted 
into a struggle for the Republic. 

A few short months, however, saw the end of all these 
new visions of Republican success and glory. The new 
French Republic of 1848 held out a year or two longei^, 
and then fell, more ingloriously, perhaps, than the gov- 
ernment of any great country ever fell before. And 
then, once again, not a single example, great or small, 
remained in all Europe of a Republic founded in revo- 
lution, or established under the auspices of the Revolu- 
tionary party. Europe was once again as universally 
and strictly under the sway of Monarchy as it had been 
previous to the proclamation of the first great Republic, 
one and indivisible, in France, sixty years before. It was 
once again, and is now, to-day, as universally and com- 
pletely under the sway of Monarchy, as a system of 
government, as it was centuries ago. 

And the circumstances under which the Democratic 
republican system has been extinguished in Europe, on 
the occasion of this last attempt to establish it, are sin- 
gular and curious, and are full of instruction to those 



PEOSPECTS IN EUROPE. 13 

wlio really wish to form an estimate of the chances of 
success which remain to encourage the hopes and efforts 
of the revolutionary party. 

In the first place, it is to be remarked that the French 
Republic of 1848 was established under a Constitution 
marked with strong democratic qualities. The preamble 
declared that its principles were those of Liberty, Equali- 
ty and Fraternity ; and that its foundations were, the 
Family, Labor, Property and Public Order. It conse- 
crated the majority of numbers as the principle of sov- 
ereignty, and election by universal suffrage as the founda- 
tion of all just power. What improvements on this 
Constitution the democracy of Euro23e might propose to 
make, or could make, in order to increase the chances of 
success and permanency, it is not easy to understand. It 
may be assumed, I think, that this Constitution was as 
likely to stand as any other which might have emanated 
from its creative genius. 

And then it must be considered that this Republic 
had a fair field ; it had the whole field to itself Nobody 
from without interfered, or attempted to interfere with 
it. Europe did not arm now, as on a former occasion, to 
oppose it. No country in Europe offered or proposed to 
oppose or disturb it. On the contrary, it was agreed, on 
all hands, the doctrines of the Congress of Laybach to 
the contrary notwithstanding, that France was at perfect 
liberty to make and maintain just such a government 
for herself as she pleased. The Republic was promptly 
acknowledged, and Diplomatic intercourse was estab- 
lished between it and all the leading Powers. 

And the Republic had another great advantage. The 
party of Royalty in the country, whatever might be its 
aggregate numbers, was broken into three factions, di- 



14 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

vided and distracted between three dynasties and tliree 
pretenders to the throne. They were Legitimists, Or- 
leanists, or Bonapartists, each faction deadly hostile to 
the others, and each resolved that Monarchy shonld 
never be restored in France unless in the line to w^hicli 
its allegiance was due. In the mean time, not only was 
Royalty abolished, but, for a while, the very presence, 
in the country, of any Royal person, or prince of any 
blood, royal or imperial, ever belonging to France, was 
forbidden. The atmosphere of the country was not to 
be tainted with the presence of any such person, nor any 
chance or opportunity given to any such person to steal 
away the hearts of the people, or seduce their unsophis- 
ticated aifections from the one and indivisible RejDublic. 
The question of the Republic was to be for France and 
France alone, unawed and uninfluenced from without, 
and unbiassed and unseduced from within. The French 
people were to determine what sort of a government 
the French people should have. 

Well, the Republic was accepted, and the nation j^ro- 
43eeded to elect the Chief of the State by universal suf- 
frage. And this it did with an unmistakable premoni- 
tion of what was to follow. Besides a Socialist candi- 
date who received between three and four hundred thou- 
sand suffi'ages, there was a true and genuine Republican 
candidate, Geul. Cavaignac, a Republican from honest 
conviction, esteemed and honored l)y the nation, who 
received less than a million and a half of votes ; whilst 
Louis jSTapoleon Bonaparte, a Prince of the Imperial 
house of that name, and the Pretender to the throne of 
his uncle, carried off more than five millions and a half 
of suifrages, and was triumphantly elected. He was 
now President of the RejDublic with a Constitution. It 



PROSPECTS IN EUEOPE. 15 

was au easy step from tliis to the Presidency of the Re- 
public, still elected by universal suflfrage, with the Con- 
stitution abolished. In one year after that he was ele- 
vated, by the use of this same powerful lever of universal 
suftrage, to the dignity of Emperor of the French, and 
the very name of Republic was once more blotted out 
of the page of French history. 

The Revolutionary party say that Louis Napoleon be- 
trayed and sacrificed the cause of French liberty. He 
seduced the army and thus overthrew the Republic. 
Louis Napoleon had been a wanderer on the face of the 
earth. He had been regarded as a desperate adventurer. 
He had been six years a State Prisoner in the fortress of 
Ham for his political offences ; and, when the revolution 
of 1848 broke out, he was abroad as an escaped criminal 
and fugitive from justice. He came back to France 
penniless. He had no military fame ; had never "set 
a squadron in the field," or fought a battle in his life. 
He had achieved no exploits to captivate the imagina- 
tion of the French, or fire them with visions of glory. 
Yet three times within five years he was saluted by the 
almost common acclaim of that people as their chief and 
their ruler. He had the army with him, but he seems 
to have had the people with him also. The army was 
just as nearly unanimous in his favor as the people, and 
no more so. And why not ? It was not a foreign army, 
with which he had invaded the country. It was a French 
army, composed of French citizens and forming a part 
of the electoral body of the country — men just as ca- 
pable of deciding for themselves, and just as free to do 
so — and more so, because they had their arms in their 
hands — as the rest of the milHons who gave him their 
suffrages, whether they would have him for President of 



16 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

the Republic or some body else, or wlietber tliey would 
have the Republic at all or not. 

No ; as I read this interesting and iinj)ortant chapter 
of history, the case was a very plain one. If French 
liberty was betrayed and sacrificed, it was the French 
people that did it. It was done after the most aj)proved 
form — by universal suflft-age. And, in my judgment, 
the vote at the first election on the 10th December, 1 848, 
which made Louis Napoleon President by so overwhelm- 
ing a majority, at a time when he had neither money, 
nor patronage, nor power, was just as significant and 
decisive of the fate of the Republic as the greatly in- 
creased vote which made him President for ten years, or 
that which elected him Emperor. I can see nothing in 
all these extraordinary proceedings but a manifestation 
of the will of the French people, by universal sufii^age, 
against the Republic. If a Republic in France cannot 
stand on the basis of universal sufi:rage — cannot main- 
tain itself with universal suffrage, when the issue is 
whether it shall stand or fall ; if when that issue is pre- 
sented, no matter how unfairly, universal suffrage seems 
to go against the Republic by nearly eight voices out of 
ten, by nearly eight millions out of ten millions, I con- 
fess I do not see what very comforting grounds of en- 
couragement and hope remain for the Republic* 

If the Republic is to reappear in Europe in our time, 
with any fair promise of stability and permanency, I am 
sure I should not know, with any acquaintance I have 

* The several elections referred to are to be looked at in their main features 
and results. No sane man takes them a? examples of what popular elections 
ought to he in point of freedom and purity, or as exempt from the gravest ex- 
ceptions in many particulars. But, after all allowances are made, there remains 
enough to render it sufficiently certain that a large majority of the French peo- 
ple, as well in 1848 as afterwards, were not of the Republican party. 



PKOSPECTS IN EUEOPE. lY 

of tlie state of things abroad, in wliat quarter to look 
for its rising, or for tlie dawn of so gracious a day. 

It is apparent that the hopes of the Revolutionary 
party now rest on the anticipated European war to 
grow out of the complications on the Eastern question, 
as affording an opportunity for successful popular de- 
monstrations in certain quarters. In the event of such 
a war, Mazzini no doubt expects to take easy possession 
of Italy for the Republicans ; Kossuth confidently looks 
to have Hungary ; and Kinckle, or somebody else, sees 
a clear field for the Republic in Germany. 

That, in such an event, there will be risings of the 
people in these countries, or some of them, is more than 
probable. But it is quite another question whether the 
long expected Republics are to rise out of the chaos, 
and come to the light, and find permanent foundations 
on which to fix themselves. On this point, my faith is 
not as large or as confident as that of the remarkable 
men I have just named. 

If a general war takes place in Europe, the immediate 
cause of that war will be the disturbance, or the 
threatened disturbance, by the Emperor of Russia, of 
the present territorial arrangements, constituting the 
balance of power between the several sovereignties, 
according to the general plan of 1815, upon the pacifica- 
tion of that period. And the object, and the final 
result, of the war will be, either to maintain the status 
of those arrangements as now existing, or, if any change 
is to take place, then to fix the new territorial arrange- 
ments and divisions to the mutual satisfaction of the 
parties, and so as still to preserve the balance of power 
in Europe. 



18 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

It is no new thing for an Emperor of Russia to wor- 
ship with his face turned towards Constantinople. The 
Emperor Alexander, in his time, desired strongly to 
be allowed to take possession of that renowned city. 
He wished to make it another capital, perhaps the 
Capital, of his Empire. As long ago as the Peace of 
Tilsit, it was agreed between him and Napoleon that 
the Ottoman power should be driven back into Asia — 
at least, that nothing should remain to it in Europe but 
Constantinople and Roumelia. And at a later period, 
a distinct proposition was made in a diplomatic note, 
without signature, but with the sanction of the Empe- 
ror, to the Minister of Napoleon, for the partition 
between Russia, Austria and France, of the entire posses- 
sions of the Sultan in Europe, including Constantinople, 
which was to fall to the lot of Russia. But Napoleon 
would never consent to see the Czar installed in Con- 
stantinople. These projects of dismemberment failed, 
therefore, at that period; but they have never been 
abandoned — at least, on the part of Russia. 

The quarrel which the Czar has now fastened on the 
Sultan is an experiment on his part, the first hazards of 
which he has been willing to take for the sake of the 
chances that might grow out of it of making at least 
some approaches towards the grand designs of Russia 
in the direction of the Turkish Capital ; an object so 
much longed for, and now so long delayed. He has 
counted, probably, in part on the known repugnance 
almost universally felt to see the joeace of Europe dis- 
turbed ; and partly on the supposed want of cordiality 
between England and France, and the difficulty, there- 
fore, which would be found in those two powers uniting 
to oppose him. It is probable, also, he has been willing 



PKOSPECTS IN EUEOPE. 19 

enough to believe that the work of conquest and dis- 
possession in the European dominions of the Sultan, once 
begun, the western powers might be brought to connive 
at the operation ; and then nothing would remain to be 
done but to settle, in another Congress of Vienna, 
how the spoils should be divided, and what changes, if 
any, should be made in the general arrangements of 
Europe. 

Now, I hazard the opinion — not perhaps worth much, 
and the unsoundness of which possibly the next arrival 
from the other continent may show — that there will be 
no general war in Europe on this Turkish question. I 
think the Czar will find that the time has not yet come 
for driving the Sultan out of Europe ; for assigning 
Constantinople to him for his winter capital, and making 
him the keeper of the Gates of the Ottoman Empire. 
He will find it impossible to satisfy the other powers 
interested in that great question. He will find that the 
western j)owers are not yet prepared to consent that his 
impatient ambition shall disturb the present equilibrium 
in Europe, so long the guarantee of peace. They have 
already made a united declaration to that eftect. I 
think, if he is not mad — and perhaps he is — he will 
not care to encounter them in war on such a question ; 
a war in which his signal discomfiture, so far as his real 
designs are concerned, must be inevitable ; a war in 
which I think he cannot count on a single ally. And 
before the season shall arrive when a regular and efii- 
cient campaign can be undertaken, it is quite probable, 
as it seems to me, that diplomacy will have found a way 
to appease the wrathful demi-god of the North, or for his 
escape from the awkward position in which he has 



20 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

placed liimself, and save Europe from a sanguinary 
struggle.* 

If this anticipation shall be realized, of course tlie 
hopes entertained of a Republic in Italy and a Republic 
in Hungary and a Republic in Germany, to emerge from 
the smoke and confusion of a general war, must be dis- 
appointed. And, on the other hand, if such a war 
comes, I see very little to encourage the hopes of the 
revolutionists. The time of a general struggle and 
melee among the powers of Europe, the object and the 
end of which must be the maintenance, or the readjust- 
ment, of the equilibrium of Europe, does not seem to 
me a time for Revolution to raise its head. With the 
strength of the male population of almost every country 
put in requisition to supply the military contingents; 
with immense armies moving in every direction, and 
present or at hand almost everywhere ; and with a 
circle of belligerents, which, however hostile to each 
other on the points immediately involved in the war, 
would be united as a band of brothers to put down 
every sign and symptom of Democratic Revolution 
wherever it might be attempted ; with all this, it is dif- 
ficult to see what peculiar encouragement such a state of 
things holds out to the party of Revolution. First or last, 
during the war, or at its close, Hungary, as a Republic, 
would find itself as much between the upper and nether 
millstone — between Austria and Russia — as ever be- 
fore. And as for Italy, France will not now, as she 
once did, send there her overwhelming armies to sustain 

* The text is left to stand as originally written, in January ; although, at the 
moment that this Lecture goes to press (now in March), the warlike indications 
have greatly multiplied. The opinion of the writer, however, still is, that no 
general European war will take place ; or that, if the affair comes to actual 
hostilities, the war cannot survive a single campaign. 



PEOSPECTS IN EUEOPE. 21 

tlie democratic Propaganda, and set up Republics, but 
lier forces will go tliere, if at all, as they went in 1849 
to Rome, to put down Revolution and all Republican 
movements, and to sustain or restore tlie ancient order 
of things. When has Revolution, or the democratic 
Propaganda, ever made a successful movement, or any 
serious movement at all, in Europe, during a general 
war, except where a first rate power was in the field 
with a Revolutionary army? I remember no such 
example, nor do I expect to witness any such instance.* 
The Revolutionary Projoaganda is accustomed to count 
on defections supposed to exist, or supposed to be likely 
to arise, in the ranks of the armies. I remember, dur- 
ing my late sojourn abroad, that on the occasion of some 
slight disturbance in one of our cities, it was announced 
in a German newspaper, as grave intelligence, that a revo- 
lution had broken out in the United States and the army 
had fraternized with the people ! There is just about 
the same probability that any regular army in Europe, 
once in the field, will fraternize with revolution. Un- 
doubtedly there are democrats and revolutionists in the 
armies, but the spirit of disaffection has little chance to 
show itself in the face of severe discij)line, and of that 
e-'^prit du corps which animates every military organiza- 
tion, and where the common sentiment is one of perfect 

* Undoiibtedly, in the event that Austria should be found on the side of 
Russia in this general conflict — a very improbable event, I think — and have 
France in the field against her, there is a chance, and a probability, that she 
may lose her Italian Provinces; and even that Hungary may achieve her former 
independence. Both these countries may be great gainers; Lombardy and 
Venice escaping from the sovereignty of Austria altogether, and falling under a 
constitutional regime; and Hungary compelling the Emperor to recognize her 
separate existence as a kingdom. An insurrection in these countries for these 
objects may very well occur; but I see no reason for supposing that France, or 
any other power, is to help the Democracy to set up Republics there, or any- 
where else. 



22 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

loyalty, and the undeviating and universal rule of action 
that of implicit obedience. Nobody expects, I believe, 
the wooden automata that compose the Russian army 
ever to do anything but obey orders. The Austrian 
army never seems to shrink from any duty to which it 
is called, against revolution and extemporised Republics. 
They did not fraternize with the Republic of Hungary, 
or the Republic of Venice, or the Republic of Tuscany. 
And as for the French army, what may be expected of 
it may be learned from the bloody ferocity with which 
it conquered at the battles of the barricades in Paris after 
the covfp d^etat of Louis Napoleon. It was the sol- 
diers, not of Imperial, but of Republican France, which 
conquered Rome from the Republicans and delivered it 
up to the Pope. 

If there is any country in Europe where the army 
might be supposed to be a power dangerous, or likely to 
become dangerous to the government, it is Prussia, and 
hence the hopes, perhaps, of the Propaganda in Germany. 
Prussia is strictly a military kingdom. Nearly every 
able-bodied man in it is a soldier. The army, active 
and inactive, is composed of the entire male population 
capable of l)earing arms, with very insignificant excep- 
tions, from the age of full manhood onward to that which 
unfits the soldier for any service. It combines nearly 
the whole physical strength of the kingdom. The mili- 
tary system of Prussia is that of a thoroughly organized 
and thoroughly disciplined militia. Properly, there is 
little that can be called a standing army. The force in 
service at any one time, is composed chiefly of the young 
men of the country under the age of twenty-four, un- 
dergoing the process of complete military instruction 
and discipline. They range from the raw recruit to 



PEOSPECTS m EUROPE. 23 

the complete soldier, ready to graduate from this great 
Military School. Three years is the normal term of in- 
struction and service ; though the recruit who can fur- 
nish his own uniform, and who, on a strict examination, 
is found to be educated up to a certain point, completes 
this service in one year. After this service is completed, 
the Prussian falls into the Landwehr of the first class, in 
which, up to thirty years of age, he is subjected to occa- 
sional drills, and to short tours of exercise annually, in 
the grand manoeuvres and military displays of the king- 
dom. He then falls into the Landwehr of the second 
class, reserved for the event of war. 

It is easy to see that the Monarchy in Prussia must 
hold its position by a very frail tenure, if the army was 
capable of being turned against it. To fraternize with 
the people the citizen soldiers of Prussia have only to 
fraternize with themselves. They are the people. And 
if Revolution in Europe, and the cause of Democracy 
and Democratic Republics have any connection with the 
progress of education and general enlightenment, as is 
commonly supposed, then Prussia, of all the countries in 
Europe, ought to be the field where the Revolutionary 
party might act with the greatest efliciency, and reap 
the most certain successes. In no country in the world is 
the pursuit of learning, in all its branches and in its 
highest walks, prosecuted more earnestly or more suc- 
cessfully. Nor is there any country where this learning 
is imparted and inculcated more assiduously or more 
effectively ; and what is particularly to the purpose in 
this matter, is the well known fact that among the most 
able, profound and world-renowned Professors and Teach- 
ers, are found those of the most liberal political senti- 
ments, who never fail to color their teachings with the 



24 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

characteristics of their peculiar doctrines and opinions. 
Besides her six universities, Prussia opens to her people, 
and maintains, about one hundred and twenty Gymna- 
sia — institutions equal to the common run of our Ameri- 
can Colleges and so-called Universities; with several 
normal Academies, many progymnasia, and numerous 
high schools ; and she provides for the mass of her popu- 
lation a common school system, which is ample for em- 
bracing every child in the kingdom in its instruction, 
and of the benefits of which she compels every child in 
the kingdom, not otherwise provided for, to partake. 
Education is, therefore, literally universal. Every Prus- 
sian employed in my household during my late residence 
in Berlin, male or female, without exception, and down 
to those in the lowest and most menial ser\dce, wrote 
perhaps as clerkly a hand as one-half of the young 
gentlemen who supply our counting houses and banks 
in this country. In like manner every Prussian soldier 
comes into the army with at least the elements of a 
common school education. And this is not all. Schools 
for carrying forward their instruction, conducted mainly 
by the young officers, are established in all regular bar- 
racks and quarters, which the military regulations re- 
quire the recruits to attend. And in this way it is, that 
the peasant and the mere clod-poll, who come up from 
the estates and rustic villages in the country with the 
countenance, the carriage and the ideas of a boor, to 
enter on their service as soldiers, are turned back at the 
end of three years, completely metamorjDhosed, with a 
marked manliness of bearing and character, and often 
with a degree of intelligence, and even of refinement, 
quite extraordinary for the sphere of life to which their 
destiny confines them. 



PROSPECTS IN EUROPE. 25 

One would really suppose, if there is any country in 
Europe where a successful blow could be struck for 
emancipation from Monarchy, it might be Prussia, where 
the people are the army, with education and intelligence 
enough to know that if they should take the field against 
the King and Koyalty, the King and Royalty must in- 
continently go the wall. Just at the time when I en- 
tered Prussia, a little more than three years ago, the 
chief military force of the kingdom, amounting to more 
than six hundred thousand men, that is to say, the main 
physical strength of the country, was on foot and in the 
full panoply of war. The King had turned them out 
for a fight with his loving nephew, the young Emperor 
of Austria, which, happily, however, did not come off. 
But there they were, the people themselves, in the field, 
with their arms in their hands, thoroughly disciplined 
to war, and among the best soldiers in the world.. And 
why in the world, if they were Democrats and Pevoki- 
tionists of the genuine stamp, should they not have taken 
that occasion, when the order suddenly came to them to 
disband, to proclaim the al)olition of Royalty, and the 
succession of the Republic, one and indivisible ? No ; 
the Prussian army seemed to be loyal then ; it seems to 
be loyal now, and it seems likely long to continue loyal ; 
which is only another way of saying that the Prussian 
people, on the whole, are loyal to their King, and are 
not yet ready to embrace the Republic. 

It is no doubt true, that the idea of the Republic, as 
an order of things appertaining to a state of political 
perfectibility — Avhenever that Millennial period shall ar- 
rive — is quite prevalent, and a good deal cherished all 
over Europe. But in spite of their leaning towards this 
sentiment, practical men — and all communities now 



26 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

abound with such — men who have property, and fami- 
hes, and business affairs to look after, who have a stake 
in society, and interests which require the protection of 
a stable, orderly and permanent government — all this 
order of persons, and nearly all others who give them- 
selves the trouble to think much of the matter, enter- 
tain the most thorough conviction that it is not within 
the competency of the Revolutionary party, and not 
within the competency of any body, at the present day, 
and in the present state of things, to devise a plan for 
the reorganization of the old societies of Europe, on the 
basis of the Republican System, which would afford any 
sufficient guarantee of public order, or have any power 
of duration. They see nothing in the experiments al- 
ready tried to lead them to desire to see those experi- 
ments repeated. The attempts and demonstrations of 
1848 were most unhappy for the credit of the Republi- 
can cause. That cause was found to be so mixed up with 
socialistic ideas, and with bold and wicked projects for 
subverting all society from the foundations on which 
God has ordained it must stand, that the wise and the 
good and the j^rudeut shrunk from it with horror. They 
think and feel that while the strength of Samson may 
suffice to pull down the pillars of the Temple, the 
strength of a thousand Samsons might not re-edify the 
building, or construct another in another form, to take 
its place and answer its uses, out of the broken frag- 
ments found in its ruins. 

But the difficulties of the Revolutionary party do not 
stop here. Before they can convert, by a few strokes of 
the pen, any of the larger countries of Europe into a 
free and stable Republic, they must find one where the 
people have been made fit to take part, through a repre- 



PKOSPECTS IN EUROPE. 2^ 

sentative system like ours, iii tlie higher and more 
compHcated aifairs of the govermnent of a great coun- 
try, by the grand prerequisites of education, of virtuous 
training and of general intelligence, and, what is most 
indispensable of all, by some practice in the traditional 
concerns of municipal and local administration and 
government, and by some experience in Parliamentary 
business. This is the sort of school in which, from the 
first settlement of this country, the American people 
were trained for the Republic. 

And this is not all. If the teachings of history and 
experience are worth anything, we may set it down as 
certain, that all the wisdom of all the wise and moderate 
men of the earth, would not sufiice to concoct a plan for 
bringing any country in Europe, having a wide extent of 
territory and a large and heterogeneous population, 
under the Re23ublican system, with any chance of 
stability and permanency, so long as all the powers of 
sovereignty and administration for the whole body 
politic must be lodged in one central and consolidated 
government, in one great Capital. Such a central and 
consolidated Government, the result and fruit of uni- 
versal suffrage, would not fail to prove itself the most 
expensive and the most corrupt of all governnents, and 
the most intolerable of all tyrannies ; and the oftener 
the administration should l)e renewed or changed by a 
system of frequent elections, the worse and the more 
intolerable would be the evil. Who does not see and 
know that the daily salvation of our beloved Republic 
is the system of States and State Sovereignties, with 
their local political institutions and administrations, so 
powerful to relieve the Federal and Central Authority 
of the corrupting and overwhelming burthen which 



28 POLITICAL ASPECTS AIS^D 

would otherwise fall upon it. Switzerland, because of 
her system of independent cantons and her federative 
government, is a Republic, after her own fashion, appa- 
rently with foundations as firm and enduring as the ever- 
lasting Alps, in the shadows of which her people dwell. 

But if it is not easy to say much that is encouraging 
and hopeful in reference to the projects of the Revolu- 
tionary party for putting down Monarchies and setting 
up Republics in Europe, I am hapj'jy to know that it 
does not follow that the friends of freedom must look 
with despair on the state of things in that part of the 
world ; as if all progress in political reform, and in the 
direction of popular liberty, was impossible. 

We all understand well enough that it is a great 
advance upon a system of absolutism — like that of 
Russia — when the authority of the crown — as in 
England — is subjected to limitations and restraints, and 
when the throne is surrounded by institutions more or 
less free, and clothed to some extent with independent 
powers. It is a great advance when the people are 
admitted to take part in the local administration of 
towns, cities and provinces ; and a still greater advance 
when they are admitted, by a system of election and 
representation, to a share in the grand affairs of the 
Central Government. It is a great advance when the 
monarch can no longer make laws, or raise revenue, or 
borrow money, or create any public debt, without the 
previous consent of a Parliament, Congress, or Diet of 
the Kingdom. 

Now the tendencies of things in Europe in modern 
times have been in the direction here indicated, and the 
mode of political reform lias heen by means of Consti- 
tutions. 



PEOSPECTS IN EUROPE. 29 

The era of written Constitutions dates from the pro- 
miiVation of the Constitution of the United States. 
In fifty years from that period, more than one hundred 
written Constitutions were established in Europe and 
America. Some of these were afterwards abolished. 
But a great many millions of people in Europe, as well 
as in America, are ruled by those that remain ; and 
other states still have since been added to the number 
of constitutional states. 

Poland is entitled to the credit of having perfected 
the first Constitution in Europe, establishing a national 
representative system, under the impulse given by our 
Constitution of 1787. It was finished four months be- 
fore the first Constitution of France in 1791. Neither 
Constitution lasted very long. The train had begun to 
move downwards on an inclined plane under a full head 
of steam, and the breaks were powerless to arrest it. 

With the French Constitution of 1793 began the era 
of the Rej^ublican system in Europe, already referred 
to, which raged till the establishment of the Empire in 
France. 

During the period of the Empire, wherever the influ- 
ence and authority of Napoleon were extended in 
Europe, out of France, Constitutions, characterized by 
much liberality and regard for popular rights, were 
established. The Kingdom of Holland, the Kingdom 
of Naples, the Kingdom of Spain, the Kingdom of 
Italy, the Kingdom of Westphalia, all received Consti- 
tutions embracing a system of national representation. 
Several states of the Confederation of the Rhine adopted 
similar Constitutions. It was a cardinal principle with 
Napoleon to abolish, wherever he could, feudal services 
and predial bondage; and he favored the system of 



30 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

general or popular rei^resentation, instead of that which 
rests on the more feudal basis of estates or classes. 
Sweden received a Constitution in 1809. 

After the overthrow of Napoleon, Europe fell into 
the cold embraces of the Allied Powers. Then began 
the era of Legitimacy, and the principle of armed inter- 
vention in support of monarchy and sovereign authority. 
But we can afford to be just to those Powers who have 
such heavy sins to answer for, and we need not refuse 
them the benefit of the truth of history. It cannot be 
said that the Allied Sovereigns, at that period, proposed 
to turn the world altogether back upon the path of the 
advance it had made in political science and in the 
knowledge and acknowledgment of the rights of mankind. 
They had sense enough to know that this was not within 
their power. It cannot be said that they proposed to 
govern the world absolutely alone, in all cases, or with- 
out imparting, at least in some cases, some share in the 
government to the people, and imposing some restric- 
tions on themselves and on the " divine right " of their 
authority. 

They restored the Bourbon to the throne of France, 
but by no means with the absolutism and unrestricted 
authority he had before the Revolution. Louis the 18th 
entered on his reign under a Constitution, the well known 
Ckarte Constitutionelle^ which established a representa- 
tive system in two bodies for legislative purposes, the 
responsibility of Ministers, the tenure of judicial office 
during good behavior, the capacity of every Frenchman 
for all civil and military employments, and the equality 
of all citizens before the law. When, in the lapse of a 
few years, the King of France manifested a disposition 
to reign without this Constitution, or in violation of it. 



PEOSPECTS IN EUEOPE, 31 

or with its most important provisions frittered away, the 
nation rose against him, and he fell, giving place, not 
this time to a Republic, but to another King, with a 
new Constitutional Charter, which he was sworn to sup- 
port. 

But a good deal was done elsewhere than in France, 
at this period, in the way of Constitution-making. What- 
ever may have been the real disposition and opinions of 
the sovereigns of Europe on this subject after the over- 
throw of Napoleon, at least they did not, in point of 
fact, set themselves altogether against the awakened 
spirit of the age in this particular; in a degree they 
seemed to yield to it. Certain it is, the tendency of the 
time, either with their -aid or in spite of them, was to- 
wards making constitutional government the normal 
condition of the states of Europe. 

In 1814, Norway adopted a Constitution of strong 
democratic tendencies. The King had only a qualified 
veto on the doings of the Storthing, or Legislative 
body. Under this Constitution, Nobility has been abol- 
ished. The Constitution is still maintained and seems per- 
manently established, in spite of the union of Norway 
with Sweden, which has a Constitution of a more aristo- 
cratic character. 

In 1815, the Emperor of Russia, as the King of Po- 
land, gave that country a Constitution, which established 
a national representation in two bodies, and guaranteed 
the liberty of the press. But this order of things did 
not last long. 

About the same time the King of Prussia, as the 
Sovereign of Neufchatel, gave that principality a Con- 
stitution with some fair and liberal provisions. 



32 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

Tlie Act of the Congress of Vienna, of the same pe- 
riod, establishing the German Confederation, stipulated, 
in its 13th article, that each Confederated State should 
establish a Constitution — a stipulation which was soon 
carried into effect throughout Germany, in nearly every 
one of the numerous States of which it is composed, 
with the exception of Austria and Prussia. Unhappily, 
the influence of these leading Powers, but more espe- 
cially the former, whose apprehensions of danger were 
kept alive by the extreme ideas and measures, and often 
rash and reckless conduct of the Revolutionary party, 
or some of its members, has since been much exerted in 
the Diet of the Confederation to bring the authority of 
that body to act upon the States in a way to render 
the Constitutional rights of the people much less availa- 
ble for real liberty than they ought to have been. 

In the Netherlands, under the arrangements of 1815, 
a new Constitution was established. The States Gene- 
ral, representmg the people, were to hold the legislative 
power, along with the King, and to determine the budget 
of the kingdom. 

In Spain, the Constitution of the Cortes was abolished 
by Ferdinand VII., on his restoration in 1814 ; but he 
was forced to accept, and swear to it, in 1820. This 
Constitution was regarded by the Allied Sovereigns as 
stripping the King too bare of his prerogatives ; and it 
was abolished by the armed intervention of France in 
1823. Since then, Constitutions have been made and 
unmade in Spain, according as one party or another in 
the State has been in the ascendant. One thing, how- 
ever, may be set down as certain ; and that is, that Spain 
can never be governed again by an Absolute King. 



PROSPECTS IN EUROPE. 33 

And the same thing is true of Portugal. There a 
liberal Constitution was established by an insurrection 
in 182 >, which was sworn to by the King in 1822. In 
1837, this Constitution, which had been overthrown in 
1823, was again revived in a modified form. 

The King of Naples accepted a Constitution at the 
hands of his army in 1820 ; but the next year an 
Austrian army came in to his rescue, and the Constitu- 
tion was abolished 

Austria performed the same service about the same 
time in Piedmont. A Constitution was proclaimed in 
Turin in March, 1821, and was abolished by the entry 
into that capital of an Austrian army just one month 
afterwards. 

In 1830 and 1832, two new kingdoms were created 
in Europe — that of Belgium and that of Greece ; and 
both were made limited Monarchies, with liberal Con- 
stitutions, by the common consent of all the powers. 

For some time previous to the year 1847, little change 
and not much agitation had taken place in Europe in 
reference to political systems. The Constitutional States 
remained Constitutional, and the Absolute remained 
Absolute. In this latter category were three of what 
are called the Great Powers ; Russia, Austria and Prus- 
sia ; Denmark, also, was of this number ; and all the 
Italian States. All the rest were constitutional, with 
unimportant exceptions. 

But at this period a remarkable movement was be- 
gun in behalf of popular rights and popular liberty. 
In the year 1846, the chair of St. Peter at Rome received 
a new incumbent in the person of Pope Pius IX. The 
time is not so remote but that nearly all must remember 
the sensation created in this country on account of the 
5 



34 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

purposes avowed and manifested by this Sovereign to 
mitigate tlie burtliens, and elevate tlie political condi- 
tion of tlie Roman people. So enthusiastic was the 
feeling, that a new mission from this Republic to the 
Pope was called for, and accorded by the Government. 

The principles avowed and the measures taken, and 
proposed to be taken by the Pontiff, electrified all Italy. 
Everywhere there were demands for political reform, and 
what made the case a remarkable one was, that Princes 
and people seemed animated by a common impulse and 
sentiment. The preparation and proclamation of Con- 
stitutions became the order of the day. The King of 
Naples and the reigning Duke of Tuscany led off in 
this great work. Liberal Constitutions had been pre- 
pared and were proclaimed by them in January and 
February, 1848. The King of Sardinia followed with 
his Constitution a few days later — on the 4th of March. 
And on the 15th of March the Pope consummated his 
concessions and plans of reform by placing the States of 
the Church under the Constitutional system. 

And this remarkable movement w^as not confined to 
Italy. The King of Prussia gave that country a Con- 
stitution in 184Y. It was based on the feudal estates, 
and not on popular representation. But it reduced the 
Monarchy from absolutism to one of limited Sovereignty. 
The King gave up his right to make the budget of the 
kingdom, or to borrow money, or create a debt, without 
the assent of the Diet. And all important projects of 
laws were to be submitted to its deliberations. 

The King of Denmark announced, in January, 1848, 
his intention to establish, with the aid of his people, a 
Constitution for that country ; and this purpose was con- 
summated, in a very liberal manner, in 1849. 



PEOSPECTS IN EUROPE. 35 

The Constitution of Holland was amended and im- 
proved, on tlie side of popular privileges, in 1848, with 
the free assent of the King, 

The Revolution of 1848, which shook a large portion 
of the European Continent like an earthquake, broke out 
at Paris on the 24th of February. Most of the Consti- 
tutions to which I have just adverted, had been prepar- 
ed, and several of them were promulgated, before the 
breaking out of this Revolution. Others were promul- 
gated a few days after that event, but had little or no 
connection with it. It is due to the simple truth of his- 
tory to declare, that in most of these cases the movement 
either originated with the Sovereigns, or the Sovereigns 
worked together with their people for the general ob- 
ject, apparently with unaffected sincerity and hearty good 
will. 

At a somewhat later period two other Constitutions, 
of a very liberal character, were promulgated, among 
the most remarkable and important of all because ori- 
ginating in first rate Powers long devoted to the system 
of absolutism. These may be regarded as having been 
prompted by the Revolutionary crisis of the time. I 
refer to those of Austria and Prussia. In both countries 
the movement began under the pressure of insurrections 
and revolutionary demonstrations ; in both, however, the 
Constitutions were proclaimed by the Sovereigns, osten- 
sibly at least, as their free grant to their people, though 
doubtless not without some reluctance and misgiving, 
after all insurrection and popular commotion had been en- 
tirely suppressed at the heart of the respective kingdoms. 
In the case of Prussia, the authority of the King had 
not been seriously threatened or disturbed anywhere 
else. The Emperor of Austria still had Hungary and 



36 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

his Italian provinces to deal with and subdue, at the 
date of his Constitution. 

Now, it is a most interesting and important fact in the 
political history of Modern Europe, very significant, and 
very hopeful for the true lovers of freedom in the world, 
though a fact very little noted, and perhaps hardly 
known to many, that there was a period in 1849, when 
the Emperor of Russia remained the only absolute 
Sovereign, at the head of any considerable country, in 
all Europe. In every other country throughout Europe, 
except his, absolutism had been formally renounced. 
Every Sovereign, worth calling such, where a Sovereign 
remained, had become a constitutional ruler, limited and 
restricted in his authority, and sharing, or prepared to 
share, in a greater or less degree, the power and respon- 
sibility of government with the nation over which he 
reigned. Even the Sultan of Turkey was not an 
exception; his Danubian Principalities enjoyed the 
advantages of a parliamentary system. The Czar had 
been left literally alone in the glory of his absolute and 
despotic power. Unhappily, the cheering aspect which 
Europe exhibited at the period just named, presenting 
a contrast so amazing to the Europe which lay in chains 
and darkness only sixty years before — only so long ago 
as the era of the promulgation of the American Consti- 
tution — was destined to suffer, at least for a time, a 
sudden and melancholy, though still only a partial, 
reverse. And the com'se of historical events compels me 
to say, that if the leaders of the revolutionary Propa- 
ganda had not interfered to disturb the regular progress 
of events in Italy and elsewhere, and to push their 
impossible projects to extremes, this reverse would not 
have taken place — at any rate, not to the extent to 



PKOSPECTS IN EUROPE. 37 

whicli it finally proceeded. It is only an illustration of 
tlie necessary result of the extreme measures prema- 
turely undertaken by tliem, tliat a Constitutional King 
of France was driven from liis tlirone only tliat tliat 
devoted country should be carried through another 
ordeal of blood and fire, to fmd repose at length, and 
once again, in the arms of a Master. In Italy, their 
operations were not less fatal to the cause of constitu- 
tional reform. 

We have seen that four constitutional governments 
had been established in Italy in the early part of 1848 ; 
namely, in the Kingdom of the two Sicilies, at Rome, 
in Tuscany, and in Sardinia. Nor is there the slightest 
ground for supposing, either that the Sovereigns of 
these countries would not have kept faith with the con- 
stitutional system, or that other powers would have 
interposed to suppress it, if only the Revolutionary 
party had been content to give the new order of things 
a fair trial, and to forego their desperate agitations. 

When, at this period, the people of Lombardy and 
Venice rose as one man to throw ojff the yoke of Aus- 
tria, and the unnatural domination of the German race 
in that beautiful land of the olive and vine, it was no 
part of their purpose to agitate for a Republic. Far 
from it. Their first care was to take the necessary steps 
to place themselves under the sceptre of Charles 
Albert, the Constitutional King of Sardinia. The 
people of the Duchies of Parma and Modena followed 
this example. Charles Albert accepted the mission thus 
imposed upon him, and promptly took the field in their 
behalf. Almost at a single blow the power of Austria 
was annihilated in Lombardy. She proposed terms of 
accommodation, and was ready, and actually offered, to 



38 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

yield np Lombardy to Sardinia. And it was just when 
affairs were at tliis critical point, when with steadiness 
and unity of purpose the possessions of Austria in 
Italy would have been rescued from her grasp forever, 
and the country placed under the mild sway of a 
Constitutional Sovereign, that the leaders of the revolu- 
tionary Propaganda interposed their intrigues and 
agitations to bring inevitable ruin on the whole cause. 
Eatlier than witness the success of the King of Sar- 
dinia in a field which they hoped some day or other, 
if not now, to be able to master and figure in them- 
selves, they chose to see that devoted country thrown 
Ijack under the iron despotism of Austrian and German 
domination. 

The cause of Constitutional government was, in a man- 
ner, one cause throughout Italy ; and the leaders of the 
Revolutionary Propaganda made their antagonism to it 
equally broad and extensive. They made, by their in- 
trigues and the dissentions they fomented, a level path 
for an Austrian army to march to an easy and decisive 
victory over Charles Albert at Custozza ; and when this 
was done they proceeded to set up their Republican 
standard at Milan, in hostility to him, under the name of 
a Committee of defence — a show of power which lasted 
just eight days, and then disappeared. While the Aus- 
trians were again installing themselves in authority in 
Lombardy, they directed their operations in other quar- 
ters. They chased the Constitutional Sovereigns of Tus- 
cany and of Rome from their dominions and proclaimed 
Republics in their Capitals. And they kept the spirit 
of insurrection and popular commotion so alive in the 
kingdom of the two Sicilies as to render it impossible 
for the Sovereign of that country, after repeated and 



PROSPECTS IN EUROPE. 39 

eai'iiest attempts, to carry the liberal Constitution lie had 
prepared and proclaimed, into effect. The end was at 
hand. After a brief struggle on the part of Charles 
Albert in a fresh campaign, equally gallant, desperate 
and fatal, the cause of independence in the Lombardo- 
Venetian provinces of Austria was finally lost, and with 
it was sacrificed the cause of Constitutional government 
in Italy. Sardinia alone retained her Constitutional 
forms. The dethroned Princes of Parma and Modena, 
and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, were restored by the 
armed intervention of Austria; and a French army 
opened the way for the return of the Pope to Rome. 
Of course, all these Sovereigns were brought back with- 
out their Constitutions. Nor is it likely, after the disas- 
ters which attended this first movement for Constitutional 
reform, that they will be eager to repeat the enterprise 
for some time to come — not, at least, so long as the 
restless activity of the Revolutionary Propaganda makes 
it apparent that the enterprise, if repeated, instead of 
satisfying, will only excite them to deadly hostility, and 
a new attempt to drive these Sovereigns altogether from 
power. 

The Austrian Constitution of the 4tli of March, 1849, 
was a remarkable production. In an Empire compre- 
hending six distinct races and nationalities, every one 
proud, ambitious, and jealous of every other, it was not 
an easy task to frame a Constitution which should pro- 
mise satisfaction to all. But, at least, it must be admitted 
that this instrument was drawn up with consummate 
skill in reference to the peculiar difficulties it had to con- 
tend with. It arranged the Empire into a sort of Con- 
federation of States, with local governments or adminis- 
trations, and with a representation both national and 



40 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

popular from each, to form a Central Diet, or Congress, 
as tlie Legislative body of the whole. It was equally 
remarkable, considering the region of the world where 
it was framed, and the Imperial authority from which it 
proceeded, for the careful pro\dsion which it made for 
securing, to as great an extent, perhaps, as any Constitu- 
tion of government in Europe, the usual and essential 
guaranties of personal and popular freedom. 

During the years 1849 and 1850, energetic and per- 
severing steps were taken, and ordinances were adopted, 
for carrying this Constitution into effect. Measures, 
more or less complete, were prepared for putting into 
action the local and provincial, or quasi national adminis- 
trations and governments throughout the empire, except 
in Hungary and in Lombardy. In these countries, in- 
surmountable difficulties were encountered. The pride 
of Hungary would not brook her being made herself a 
party to the sacrifice of her ancient national and royal 
independence, to the extent and in the manner contem- 
plated by the new Constitution. And in this ground of 
hostility both the ultra Royal and Aristocratic party and 
the extreme Democracy were agreed. They both pi'e- 
ferred, on the whole, though not for identical reasons, 
that the power over them, for the time, should remain 
absolute in the hands of the Emperor. What Hungary 
really wanted was her old independence as a Kingdom 
— not, I believe, as a Republic — with the right to ac- 
cept for herself her King, on proper terms, in the per- 
son of the Emperor of Austria. 

In Lombardy and Venice the hostility to the Imperial 
Constitution was equally strong and general, though pro- 
ceeding on grounds somewhat different. The people of 
that region desired to escape altogether from the domi- 



PEOSPECTS IN EUROPE. 41 

nation of the German race, and they were unwilling to 
accept a Constitution, however liberal in its provisions, 
which would bind those provinces by a new and higher 
obligation, through their representation in the Central 
Diet, to an Austrian national unity, from which it might 
become impossible to free themselves. Looking either 
to an independent kingdom of their own, or to being in- 
corporated with the Constitutional kingdom of Sardinia 
— a consummation so nearly realized in 1848, and so 
miserably spoiled by the leaders of the extreme party 
of Revolution — they preferred to bide their time and 
their destiny, under the present centralized and military 
power of Austria. 

It became apparent, and so the Emperor and his 
advisers were convinced, after long deliberation and 
diligent inquiry, that, aside from aversions and dissatis- 
factions found elsewhere among the turbulent nationali- 
ties of his empire, the attempt to force his Constitution 
on the Hungarians and the Lombards would encounter 
hostilities which would disturb the peace, and even 
endanger the safety and integrity of his empire. It 
was also a consideration which weighed strongly with 
him to abandon the project, that the party of the 
Propaganda and Revolution stood ready in all quarters, 
for their own purposes, to swell the ranks of insurrec- 
tion and war against the Constitution. All further 
attempts to carry the Constitution into operation were 
abandoned in 1851 ; and Austria then became once 
more, and more than ever before perhaps, an absolute 
and military monarchy. 

It is not easy to say when Austria will be prepared 
to venture again on a constitutional scheme of govern- 
ment. There are some indications that a new project is 

6 



42 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

already a-foot. I certainly am of opinion tliat it is the 
disposition of tlie young and ardent Emperor to intro- 
duce and establish the constitutional system; but I 
confess I do not see how any scheme can be found prac- 
ticable, short of giving a separate Constitution and an 
independent nationality to Hungary and to his Italian 
Provinces. Even then, and always it would seem, it 
will remain to him to encounter the implacable hate 
and hostility of the ultra leaders of the revolutionary 
Propaganda to any project of change or amelioration, 
less than that of abandoning both throne and country 
to them. 

It is not an unimportant consideration that Prussia, 
one of the great Powers of Europe, has l)ecome, and 
remains, and is likely to remain, a Constitutional State. 
I feel confident that this is the disposition and firm 
determination of the King. 

The King of Prussia is one of the most accomplished 
men of his kingdom — the fit associate and companion 
of the most illustrious genius of the age — the venerable 
Alexander Humboldt, his confidential friend, whom he 
always retains as near as possible, and as much as possi- 
ble, about his person. As a Sovereign, he is not without 
ambition ; he wishes to see Prussia great and powerful ; 
but he wishes also to make her glory conspicuous to the 
world as a leading state in the cultivation and support 
of universal education, of learning and the arts, and of 
whatever else belongs to the highest civilization of the 
period. He leads a life of exemplary purity ; and he 
maintains, in the midst of an abounding infidelity, a 
steadfast religious faith, and aims to governs his conduct, 
private and public, by a careful and conscientious ad- 
herence to Christian principle. I do not think there is 



PROSPECTS IN EUEOPE. 43 

any man, high or humble, any philanthropist or any 
boasting patriot, in the Kingdom of Prussia, who de- 
sires more ardently, or watches more intently, or labors 
more unremittingly, to promote the happiness of the 
people, than he does. If there is a better way of doing 
this than his way, then it is his wisdom, and the sphere 
and rank in which he was born, that are in fault, and 
not his intention or his sincerity. 

The Kinof is a man of much cleverness and talent. 
He possesses, in quite an eminent degree, the gifts of 
wit and eloquence. His understanding, with considera- 
ble breadth and com23rehension, has that characteristic 
cast of imagination which, while it makes the German 
mind capable of wonderful things in the way of specu- 
lation, does not always secure the highest practical 
wisdom or lead to the best practical results. His nature, 
too, is impressible, and he is apt to be swayed, by inge- 
nious sophistries as well as by sound arguments and 
views, from one opinion or project to another, in a way 
to involve him in apparent inconsistencies. It is often 
charged against him, that he wants firmness of purpose, 
and too easily alternates between opposite ideas and 
opposite lines of policy. If there is some justice in this 
charge, I think it may be said, also, with perfect truth, 
that whatever opinion he embraces is for the time 
honestly held and conscientiously acted on. 

The great struggle in the mind of Frederick William 
IV., nearly all his life long, has been to reconcile his duty 
as a born King, brought into the world and appointed, 
as he believes, by the express will and grace of God to 
be the ruler of his people, and bound to preserve at 
least some of the bases of the old order of things — to 
fail in any part of which duty would be to him the 



44 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

most mortal of all sins ; how to reconcile tliis duty with 
certain ideas of reform and progress, which the ad- 
vancing enlisfhtenment and civilization of the world 
have not failed to force upon his consideration. His 
Constitution of 1847, the result of years of anxious 
meditation and study, was also the ripened fruit of this 
conflict in the King's conscience. It is a curious record 
to show how the labors of a speculating mind, left very 
much alone in its lucubrations, may come to rest in con- 
clusions which seem to itself very satisfactory and very 
substantial, when, in truth, practical men are unable to 
discover either much substance or much sense in them. 
It was not without its merit and value. But his Con- 
stitution of 1849 was quite another thing. It provided 
fairly for a true constitutional government, embracing 
many liberal features, though marked in some of them 
with the genius of the King's peculiar thoughts and 
fancies. Undoubtedly, the events of 1848 had had their 
influence upon him, or he never could have brought 
himself to sanction and grant this Constitution. He 
did so, at last, not without hesitation and misgiving, and 
even with an express reserve, for the quiet of his con- 
science, in the oath he took to support it. 

The King has often been urged and pressed to abolish 
the Constitution. This he has steadily refused to do, 
though goaded frequently to infinite displeasure and im- 
patience by what takes place under its sanction. I do 
not believe he will ever do so. I do not believe the Con- 
stitutional system will ever again be discarded in Prus- 
sia. The Constitution has undergone some changes, and 
is likely to undergo others, not acceptable to the ^aews 
of the lil^eral and Constitutional party. But, one thing 
I consider certain — that the Parliamentary system, with 



PROSPECTS IN EUEOPE. 45 

the incalcula])le advantages aucl guaranties for personal 
and popular rights which are inseparable from that sys- 
tem, is secured to Prussia for all time to come. 

With the historical events which I have now traced, 
I am ready to bring this Lecture, already protracted to 
an inconvenient length, to a close, with a very brief sum- 
mary of the conclusions involved in the sketch we have 
been contemplating. 

Men may dispute about causes and agencies, but re- 
sults, as matters of fact, must present themselves to the 
comprehension of all minds of healthy organization and 
habit, in nearly one and the same aspect. Everybody 
must see that the attempts to create Republics in Europe 
by revolution have thus far utterly failed. And if any- 
body supposes that the prospect of success in any such 
enterprise is more flattering to-day than it was sixty 
years ago, why that is an opinion which may be honestly 
enough entertained, but I should most deeply regret and 
deprecate the folly of any fiiend or countryman of mine 
who should propose to stake either life or fortune on the 
issue. 

I think if Europe is ever to become Republican in- 
stead of Monarchical as it now is, it must approach that 
condition in a gradual and progressive way, and not by 
a word and a blow. The political philosophers of this 
day cannot create durable Republics by a proclamation, 
or a declaration of sentiments and sounding phrases, 
any more than the political philosophers of 1793 could 
do the same thing. Creations of this sort may, perhaps, 
be conjured up by the magic power of necromantic voices, 
but they will dissolve and vanish like all created in the 
same way, that have gone before them. 



46 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

Republics, like every creation in nature tliat is de- 
signed, or destined, to have a durable existence, must 
have a gradual growth. Bubbles are easily blown ; but 
Republics must be made of something besides vapor and 
thin air. This blessed Republic of ours had a natural 
and steady growth of one hundred and fifty years, under 
every conceivable advantage for a healthy development, 
before it came to the birth. And yet there are those 
who seem to believe that when they would have just 
such another in any part of the world, nothing need be 
done but speak it into existence. 

The materials for a great structure may be put to- 
gether with greater or less facility, according to the skill 
and energy employed in the erection, but these materials, 
in the natural state, must have had time to grow and 
consolidate before they could be usefully employed, or 
employed at all. Nature will have her own process in 
forming the iron and the wood and the stone, and she is 
not to be hurried in the operation. And the political and 
moral materials which are to enter into the frame of a 
great Republic must have time to grow and consolidate ; 
and even then they are not to be put together in a mere 
mechanical way ; they must assimilate and grow togeth- 
er, and become incorporate, by a natural and gradual 
process, to form one collective and indivisible body, with 
individuality, identity and unity. 

Buildino;' barricades and waterins; the streets of cities 
with blood, is not an infallible recipe for compounding 
Republics. And if all Royalty had one heart, and that 
were pierced by the steel of the assassin, or one head, 
and that were guillotined — and a process not quite so 
summary but equally comprehensive, is openly proclaim- 
ed as the policy and resolution of the Democratic Propa- 



PEOSPECTS IN EUEOPE. 4Y 

ganda at the next chance for a Revolution — if this were 
clone, I do not think that even the addition of this ample 
ingredient of the purple and liquid life of all kings and 
tyrants, though it might 

" Make the gruel thick and slab," 

would still produce a charm potent enough to do more 
than raise an illusory apparition of Republics — certain- 
ly not to create and give form and consistence to com- 
pact and solid structures of human government fit to 
bear that respectable and honored name. If all Kings 
and Emperors in Europe were dead to-day, with all their 
progeny and kin, that country would supply herself 
with as many more to-morrow. When Louis XVI. goes 
to the scaffold, Napoleon Bonaparte is sure to be stand- 
ing not far off, ready to take his place. It is not by a 
process of incantation, however bloody ; it is not by a 
wizard cry of 

" Double, double toil and trouble, 
" Fire, burn ; and cauldron, bubble ;" 

that political institutions can be created and fitly joined 
together to constitute a great frame of government on 
the Republican plan, under the shelter and shadow of 
which a great nation may repose. 

And all premature revolutionary efforts and demon- 
strations to this end, will almost certainly have, as they 
almost always have had, just one effect, namely — to 
strengthen existing and reproduce extinct Absolutism, 
as the only power which feels itself competent to cope 
with the frightful disorders, and to oppose the tendency 
to that condition of unmitigated anarchy, which this 
sort of Revolution is sure to generate. 



48 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

Nobody can doubt, who knows anything of the sub- 
ject, that the tendency of Europe is. and has been for a 
considerable time, to Constitutional government, as its 
normal condition, retaining hereditary Monarchy. But 
the Revolutionary Propaganda, instead of favoring, sets 
itself up as a sworn and implacable enemy to Constitu- 
tional Monarchy. It hates Constitutional Kings worse, 
perhaps, than absolute ones, as standing more in the way 
of the desperate game of hazard it has undertaken to 
play. And the effect of a hostile demonstration on its 
part is just this: that as soon as society is thrown into 
effervescence and confusion by its operations, a struggle 
for existence commences on the part of the governments, 
and becomes identical with a struggle between Order on 
one side and Anarchy on the other ; and then the gov- 
ernments, finding no safe middle ground to stand on, or, 
it may be, in the case of some, seizing the occasion with 
a maUcious pleasure, after bending, perhaps, temporarily 
to the storm, finally meet the exigency with the heaviest 
hand of power, stifling, of course, for the time, every 
aspiration for liberty, and, too often, the very voice and 
cry of humanity itself. 

Whoever really wishes to see Europe become Repub- 
lican, must be willing to wait long enough to witness the 
gradual growth and development of those conditions, 
foundations and institutions of freedom which form the 
essential and indispensable elements of the Republican 
System, and which go to constitute its soul and substance. 
A Republic is a political State, not where Freedom must 
be born, but rather where it must be transplanted, at a 
proper stage of maturity, to ripen and flourish in ex- 
panded and perpetual beauty. It is a political State, 
not where Liberty must undergo her probation, but 



PEOSPECTS IN EUEOPE. 49 

rather where she enters on the fruition and rewards of 
the virtues she has ah^eady learned to cherish and to 
practice. 

Now, these essential elements of freedom, of which I 
speak, are exactly what are taking root and beginning 
to spring up and bear theii^ fruit, under the Constitu- 
tional and Parliamentary System, already so extensively 
adopted, and which is destined, I do not doubt, at no 
very distant day, to become universal in Europe. I 
except, of course, Russia, where the political salvation 
of the peoj)le must be left to be wi'ought out at a later 
period — a country which, perhaps, has less to do at this 
time with the proper civilization of Europe than that 
of the Sultan of Turkey. 

Under this Constitutional and Parliamentary System, 
many of the primary conditions of popular liberty are 
secured from the outset ; and a stand-point is gained, 
from which the rest may be attained by a sure and safe 
progress. 

Election and Representation ; the separation of the 
Executive from the Legislative power; the independ- 
ence of the judiciary ; the limitations imposed on the 
prerogatives of the crown, and the responsibility of the 
King through his ministers; all these are great and 
fundamental elements of freedom, which are commonly 
secured under this system. The Bill of Rights, which 
usually stands in the foreground of these European Con- 
stitutions, is itself, in most cases, an ample charter of 
hberty. It is so in the Constitution of Prussia. Feudal 
privileges and feudal oppressions are almost sure to be 
swept away by them at once. The peasant slave be- 
comes a freeman. Opportunity is given to the people, 
or to portions of them, to exercise themselves in the 

1 



50 POLITICAL ASPECTS AND 

actual liandling of the business of government and ad- 
ministration, by the provisions which are made, through 
systems of local election and representation, for the con- 
duct of affairs in the cities, towns and provinces of the 
kingdom. 

It is, however, the Parliamentary System which be- 
comes such a wonderful instrument for developing the 
faculties of the nation, and fitting it for self-government. 
In the parliamentary body, while the press is shackled, 
debate is free, and the sittings are public. It is amazing 
what a spring and expansion are given to the human 
mind, both within and without the Chambers, as soon 
as this field is opened to it. The Prussian nation, under 
my own eye and observation, was born into a new poli- 
tical world, by entering upon the Parliamentary System. 
No nation, where that system prevails and is maintained, 
can long be enslaved or oppressed. Sooner or later, 
every grand essential of human rights and human 
liberty, however obstinately withheld, will be reclaimed 
and secured ; the nation will be redeemed and free. 

I am sure I do not know when, if ever, the Constitu- 
tional Monarchies of Europe, even the most advanced of 
"them, or those that shall become so, are to be converted 
into Republics. All I mean to say is — what must be 
apparent to every reflecting and sober mind — that this 
is the way — the way of the Constitutional and Parlia- 
mentary System — and the only way, in which the 
European nations are likely to become fitted for self- 
government, whether under Republican forms or any 
other. And I mean to say, also, that, in my judgment, 
if they do not come to the Republican System in this 
way, they are not likely to come to it in any way. 



PROSPECTS IN EUROPE. 51 

And in tlie mean time if our desire — the desire of 
this great American people — is to see the European 
nations making advances in political knowledge, wisdom 
and liberty, we have just one thing to do, and that is, 
to demonstrate to them, by our example, that written 
Constitutions, and laws made and administered under 
such Constitutions, are fitted to secure the rights of per- 
son, of property and of family, and the reign of law, 
order and peace in society. And, then, if we would go 
further, and desire to see these nations, some day or 
other, taking their place by our side in a circle of well- 
appointed and orderly Repubhcs, and if we wish, to this 
end, to lend them the strongest helping hand in our 
power, we have just the same sort of thing, and noth- 
ing else, to do ; we must demonstrate to them, by our 
example, that Republican forms, and Administration 
under such forms, and popular Election by universal suf- 
frage, extending even to the election of the Chief of the 
State, are promoters and not corrupters of public and 
private virtue, and consist perfectly with the cultivation 
and observance of honesty, sobriety, rehgion, justice, 
national integrity and national faith, with a healthy pros- 
perity, with an ever-advancing civilization, and with true 
national honor and glory. 



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